Digital Nomads Co-Founder Francesco Bonafine began his career with the tech giant Google, which he credits as inspiring his entrepreneurial vision, expertise and the way he approaches his work.
Founded in 2017, Digital Nomads is a digital marketing agency that offers web design services and online advertising to companies and agencies.
After leaving Google, Bonafine relocated to Hong Kong to explore the start-up scene here. He immediately noticed that local businesses were missing out on a lot of untouched opportunities when it came to digital transformation.
“Digital Nomads helps local companies to embrace innovation and integrate their existing offline strategies with those in the connected world,” he explained.
At Digital Nomads, the foremost goal is helping to change local companies’ entrepreneurial mindsets and preparing them for the challenges of today’s fast-changing world. Large corporations have, in general, successfully managed to embrace the digital transformation, but many small businesses still struggle to adapt. Bonafine believes that SMES need to be informed about the risks of conducting business with an outdated mindset.
“Today’s world is challenging and Covid-19 is not the only issue. Markets change fast and being able to digitize is essential for businesses to adapt and act on time,” he said. “Resilience is built upon the adoption of new technologies, and companies that don’t evolve are bound to remain in the past while the rest of the world moves forward.”
Bonafine said that self-improvement and persistence are key to business success, and that talent alone is not enough. “Talent has to fail, learn and grow to eventually shine. Every entrepreneur sooner or later will fail in something, this is part of human nature.”
“Samuel Beckett, one of my favorite Irish novelists, once wrote: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ In our working environments we are not used to celebrate failure and this is wrong. If today we are successful it’s because we learned the past lesson and have grown with it.”
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Digital Nomads has been working on more online resources with their training partners through sharing blog articles and organizing webinars. Over the last three years, they have organized a multitude of training events and workshops with co-working spaces, organizations and government offices.
“When it comes to knowledge sharing, we very much prefer a face-to-face environment, but as I said before, adapting and learning in difficult times is essential for every business’ survival,” said Bonafine.
He noted that joining HKGCC has been “synergetic to my professional and personal growth,” adding that the work of the Digital, Information and Telecommunications Committee was particularly helpful, as it allows Digital Nomads to stay on top of Hong Kong’s “Smart City” transformation process.
Company : Digital Nomads Ltd
HKGCC Membership No. : HKD0796
Established : 2019
Website : http://www.digitalnomadshk.com